PNC Bank to issue Visa virtual wallet

PNC has become the first US bank to offer Visa's new digital wallet service, V.me, to its online banking customers.

PNC is to offer V.me to more than 1.2 million PNC Virtual Wallet customer accounts, with a commitment to make the technology available to more than 6.3 million accounts in 2013.

Registered users can make secure online payments to participating merchants with just a username and password, removing the hassle of having to enter card account number, bill-to and ship-to information for every transaction.

Alongside PNC, Visa has signed it's largest e-commerce partner to date, adding 1-800-flowers to a select list of 24 online merchants currently accepting the service.

The wallet, which is also being tuned to support Near Field Communication using Visa PayWave on the high street, will be rolled out to more US banks in the near future promises Visa. The card scheme's initial list of card issuers included the likes of Barclaycard, BB&T, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank and US Bank.

V.me is expected to be undergo small scale trials in Europe this autumn, with full availability in the UK, France and Spain from Summer 2013.